NCMS Member Prepares for Space Flight

Michael Brennan, MD, a North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) life member who has been heavily involved in the society and its foundation for many years, is preparing to become one of the first passengers on Virgin Galactic’s commercial suborbital spaceflight. A lifelong dream for Dr. Brennan, he doesn’t know exactly when the flight will happen – perhaps as early as next year – so he has to stay in shape and keep his schedule flexible as he anticipates this journey of a lifetime.

Dr. Brennan, an ophthalmologist who will be retiring at the end of this summer from the Alamance Eye Center, finally decided to apply to become one of Virgin Galactic’s 700 future astronauts last fall after the company’s VSS Enterprise crashed during a test flight in California’s Mojave Desert.

“I thought it would be a good time to apply because a lot of people will drop out,” he told his hometown newspaper The Burlington Times-News. “I could be higher on the list and get to go earlier.”

Virgin Galactic interviewed Brennan twice to make sure he was in good shape and knew what he was getting into. He paid the required upfront deposit and signed a contract shortly afterwards.